Background
In a game design course, I designed a block breaking game through Unity 3D. Mechanics, interface, and audio work harmoniously on computers. However, I found such a game was less popular when I released to the mobile terminal. So I begin to research and redesign it.
THE WHY
Block Breaker
Overview
This is the redesign of the classic block breaker game for mobile users. By adopting innovative interactions applicable to mobile interaction habits, players can enjoy the game as they did before with keyboard.
Category
mobile app
Role
Game Designer &Programmer
Time
1 week
Why block-breaker game is less popular
on mobile devices.
To understand the reason why it's losing popularity, I posted surveys in game communities and turned my role into a a player to empathize. The reasons I found are below:
Precise control of pedal on TUI is demanding
Cannot get immediate haptic feedback
Hands may block the view
I conducted a research on Taptap to know existing solutions towards these problems. There are 37 similar games on Taptap. Only 7 of them gained score over 8. I catergrized their into 2:
Solve it/
Adopt new interaction
Adopt new interactions to reduce operating load such as shooting and aiming, by which the game mechanics is changed.
Eliminate it/
Adopt new mechanics
They adopt new mechanics to reduce operating load such as getting rid of the paddle, using more balls to break bricks and giving ball more chances to bounce.
THE HOW
Bus time is a good opportunity to observe how people interact with their mobile phones.
problem experimented with two solutions. One solution is solving this music game. Inspired by how he interacted with this game, I One day, when I was on the bus, I saw a man playing with a through using new mechanics, the other one is through using creative interaction.
Solution 1
Two hands
A new mechanism to paddle
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Users can click to shoot more
balls to break bricks
Solution 2
One hand
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New interaction: changeable paddle
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Users can slide to change the length of paddle
THE IMPLEMENT
Use MDA framework to implement the game
I adopted MDA framework to implement the game. MDA is known as Mechanics-Dynamics-Asthetics
Scripts
Dynamics
Mechanics
Level 1
Level 2
THE VISUAL
What I Learned
Emphasizing users underlying needs and concerns is very important to reframe the problem.
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AR/VR is a completely new area with infinite possibility of new interaction.
The lack of haptic feedback from clothes such as weight and textile is the main problem that blocks the software getting popular in real life.